Stoic Characters and a Bastard Overlord God-Author

So, I was cleaning the stove top the other day, and scraped my finger on a sharp edge. I got a two millimeter cut as a result. Barely even bled. No bandaid required.

But it did sting in the shower that night. A tiny, minuscule cut, and it stung like a bugger.

This got me thinking.

I’ve just edited the passage in my WIP where my poor main character gets his leg savaged by a demon cannibal.

He’s properly wounded (lots of screaming and passing out), but after being patched up by a medicine man, he soon carries on, and a week later gets involved in a bloodthirsty battle.

Meanwhile, I’m still lamenting the scratch on my flipping finger!

It got me thinking about the god-awful things we do to our brave, stoic characters. In this WIP alone I put pretty much all my characters through the wringer. And that’s nothing compared to the emotional trauma I put my very favourite character through (in a fanfic piece I wrote a few years ago). The poor guy was totally emotionally destroyed by this bastard overlord God-author, all for the sake of entertainment.

34 thoughts on “Stoic Characters and a Bastard Overlord God-Author”

That’s the fun of being a God-Author. You get to put characters through things you never have to experience yourself. Unless you’re like me with my second book where the main character experiences some of the hells I went through.

Oooo, a demon cannibal, I like it! I forced a character to kill off a family member in order to save others. Another time a mother realized her son was possessed by a demon, so I made her tie the child up at night so she could sleep.

I don’t like to hurt my characters for the sake of it, but sometimes is necessary.
In the novel I’m currently working on, one of my characters had to get a tattoo to cover the scar I gave her in the previous book, courtesy of the dread shanhui, the green demon dog with a man’s face of Chinese tradition.
And I might have thrown to the dinosaurs a few of the characters in House of the Gods, but that was part of the fun.

I put my characters through tons of emotional trauma and often physical trauma, but in my last release, END OF DAY, I crossed a line for one of my MC’s that had me biting my nails on release day. So far no one has slammed me for it, but I still have “author nerves.”
I think it also makes a difference if it’s a secondary character or an MC. I’m far more free with my secondary characters, but sometimes you just have to push the line with the MC.

I don’t think I’ve put ny characters through too much, at least not yet. I did have a random moment recently where my protagonist was in a fight, and I randonly realized I needed to break their arm.
It was a strange feeling, this calm, detached realization that was so different from the emotional maelstrom the character was experiencing.
What’s really funny is I’m co-writing and the other writer asked why I didn’t break her protagonist’s character’s arm, and I very matter of factly told them, “Nope. I’m leaving that for you to do, if you choose to.”

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A bit about me

I am a creative writer with over twenty years of writing experience. I am a speculative fiction writer, and have written in the genres of fantasy-romance and paranormal-romance, however my genre of choice when it comes to writing for myself is dark fantasy where I can allow myself to fully explore the anti-hero characters that pepper my stories. I dabble at poetry and have written professionally for clients locally and internationally.
My debut novel, Guns of Perdition, The Armageddon Showdown Book 1, is due for release later this year.
My major love affair is with the written word; specifically creative writing. I allow myself to indulge and rendezvous with this secret lover whenever time allows… and then we make beautiful poetry together!